“I can’t. I’m just a maid, Ivy. He’s a wealthy man who has too much power.”
I squeeze her hand. “He’s just a man, Annette. And you’re aren’t a maid. You are a human being.”
“Oh, Ivy,” she says, pulling me in for a quick hug. “Please stay true to yourself. Never let wealth corrupt you.”
“Please, Annette—what did he do?”
I’m worried for her, my stomach rolling with it. I’ve become close to her over my time here. She’s practically the mum I never had.
And she feeds me. Anyone who feeds me should be worshipped in my book.
She shakes her head. “Just remember he’s a bad man. And what you think he’ll do to you is not as bad as what he will do to you. Just be careful.”
I sigh, not getting anywhere. “Damn riddles,” I mutter. “Does Nova know what he’s like?”
“Miss Monroe is scared of him too, but you can’t let her know I told you.”
“Nova’s scared of him?” I ask, needing answers.
The door pushes open, revealing Kaiden. “There you are. Are you coming?”
Annette snatches her hand away from me, placing the rest of the items in the bag. “Miss Ivy is ready. Here you go,” she tells me, handing me the bag. Her expression implores me not to say anything, to keep quiet. I give her a subtle nod, taking the bag from her.
“I’ll speak to you later.”
“Car’s ready,” Kaiden tells me, and I sigh, glancing at Annette one more time. I don’t want to leave her like this.
I’m fed up of not getting answers. I need to talk to Nova, and I need to talk to her now.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Get me out of here,” Selina whines, her throat still raw.
She’s been in the hospital for just under a week. The day I went to confront Nova, once and for all, and demand the truth about those around me, I found out Selina had been intubated. Her lungs and throat had inflamed overnight, leaving little room for her to breathe. She was on it for nearly two days, yet it felt like a lifetime for me.
I’ll never forget the moment I walked into her room and saw her like that on the bed. She looked pale, lifeless, and for a moment, I thought she was dead.
My heart was in my throat, and I’d wanted to scream out desperately, but nothing would come out. Kaiden had been my support, emotionally and physically, holding me up when I nearly fell down. I don’t know what I would have done without him there.
I lived with Mum for just over seventeen years and didn’t shed a tear when they announced she had overdosed. All I felt was loss.
The second I walked into Selina’s room, tears streamed down my face, and I felt like I had lost a limb. I hated the vulnerability I felt, hated that someone had the power to make me feel that weak, but Selina had come to mean so much to me. She wasn’t malicious, she wasn’t fake, and she was everything I wasn’t. She was kind, bubbly and filled with life.
She’s made a full recovery, but Sam—my dad—isn’t taking any chances with her health. Her own parents haven’t even been by to check on her as far as I’m aware. It’s only that part of her life I can relate to, and I wish there was something I could do to make it better for her. She’s tried to play it cool, acting like she isn’t affected, but I could see the desperation every time someone walked through the door, and her head would bow with defeat every time it wasn’t them.
There was nothing I could do. I knew that from experience. But I could distract her, visit her, and hope I can fill a little of that void like she’s done for me since I arrived.
I laugh over the phone, watching her face scrunch up. Whenever Sam is there, I’m not, so we Facetime to catch up. Nova said he didn’t mind leaving for a while to let me come in. He’s been staying in the VIP rooms to stay close to Selina.
“They said two more days.”
“I’m going to miss your eighteenth birthday,” she whines. “And I’m fine. Look!” She takes in a deep breath, looking ridiculous. “I can breathe perfectly fine.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s two more days, and it’s not like you’ll be missing much. I don’t want a party.”
She snorts. “I was going to do a girly night and have someone come in to give us facials, wax and tint our eyebrows, and all that girly stuff. School starts in a week, too, so it’s perfect timing. We have to start planning.”
I grimace, kind of glad she’s stuck in hospital. If I weren’t still avoiding Sam, I’d hug him right now. There is no way anyone with a wax pot is coming near me. I’ve seen videos on the internet at school. It looks more like torture than a beauty regimen. I’m pretty sure stuff like that is meant to be relaxing, soothing, and the girl I watched didn’t look relaxed. In fact, she looked worse than the woman in the birthing video we had to watch in our health and social class.
Music continues to blare next door, and I inwardly groan. The twins are clearly having another party, and it’s getting rowdier by the minute. I’m pretty sure someone just turned it up.
“Is that music?” she asks, making me laugh when she tries to move her head to see around my phone, like that will work.
“Yes. I’m going to go and see what’s going on. Kaiden didn’t say anything about having a party.”
“I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me about you two. I knew something was going on.”
“I said I was sorry,” I tell her, chuckling.
“I had to find out from the twins. I’m missing everything. I want to come home.”
“Two more days,” I remind her again.
She falls back on her bed, holding her phone closer to her face. “I hate being here.”
“You’ll be fine for two more days,” Sam rumbles.
My expression turns to stone, and Selina looks at me worriedly, biting her bottom lip. She knows I don’t want to be around him, even if it is through a phone. It’s just too much.
“I’ve got to go. Annette’s calling me,” I tell her.
Selina silently nods, knowing I’m lying. Annette hasn’t been around much since the day Royce cornered me in the kitchen. It’s only the two of us who know about the encounter, and I’d rather keep it that way until I figure out what he’s up to. There’s no way this is about me and Kaiden sleeping together. I could read it on his face when he was threatening me. His issue goes deeper than that, and I want to know why. But there is no way I can go to Kaiden for help. I don’t want to be the girl who causes that kind of drama. I’ll become my mum if I do.
Cheshire Grove is filled with mystery and cover-ups, and I want to discover what they are.
I end the call just as Sam’s face comes into view, cutting off what Selina was saying. My heart races, and I take in a deep breath.
I can’t forgive him for what he’s said and done, but I guess the little girl inside of me wants to have a father in my life, a parent.
I just don’t have a good track record when it comes to parents. I never trusted my mum, not as far as I could throw her.
Sam, however, is in another league, but at least she was honest about who she was. For the most part anyway—she did hide where she came from for all my life.
I just wish I could work him out, what makes him tick. He seems all business, but at the hospital, I saw a different side to him. All of it is driving me crazy.
I flick off the television, slide out of bed, and head out of the room and downstairs, intending to see what the guys are up to next door. I’m not in the mood to be around a bunch of drunken idiots, but I want to see if Kaiden will take me to the hospital in the morning so Selina can see me for my birthday. Why she wants to make a big deal out of it, I don’t know. I’ve never even received a card, or celebrated it before. But it will make her happy, so I’ll suffer and let her do the birthday thing.
People mill around outside, clear cups in their hand filled with alcohol. I wave back to a guy I remember from camping, but don’t stop to talk to him and his group of friends.
Someone knocks into my shoulder on my way up
the stairs to the front door. “Hey, watch it,” I snap. I turn to face the tosser who bumped into me, sucking in a breath when I see it’s Danielle with a group of her friends. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
She smiles sweetly up at me. “Kaiden invited me. You didn’t think you meant that much to him, did you?”
My heart stutters to a stop, but I don’t let it show. “Get over yourself, Danielle, or better yet, get over Kaiden.”
She laughs, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “Or get under him. He likes being on top. He can fuck harder.”
I tap my chin, tilting my head. “Funny. He likes it when I’m on top. Maybe you were just doing it wrong.”
Her jaw hardens, her eyes nearly popping out their sockets before her lips lift into a smug smile. “How’s Selina?”
I take a step forward, but Grant grabs me. “Inside.”
“Did you hear—”
He rolls his eyes at me. “Just go inside to the twins.”
Too tired to start another fight, I shake his arm off me and storm inside, ignoring her taunts. I see the twins cornering a guy I recognise from camping. I’m about to interrupt them when I stop, hearing them mention the fire. I step a back a little, so they don’t see me.
“Was you with her or not on the night of the fire, Will,” Ethan asks, stepping closer. “Don’t lie to us. You know we will find out the truth.”
Flustered, Will runs his fingers through his hair, pulling at the ends. “I don’t know. I was with her, but it was a blur. There were a few of us hanging out, drinking, and we were hooking up, but I don’t know, man. I was drunk, and I passed out. I was so out of it. I did a little too much weed.”
Ethan shares a look with Lucca before turning back to Will. “Did Danielle ask you to lie?”
Will’s eyes widen. “Nah, mate. One minute we were hooking up and the next she was telling me what a good time we were having, and she loved what I’d done to her. That’s all. She didn’t even know about the fire. I don’t think. I can’t remember. Is Kaiden pissed we hooked up? If he is, I thought they were broken up.”
“Wait, so you black out and Danielle gives you a run-down of what you’d been doing when you came to?”
Jittery, he nods, looking scared. “Yeah, kind of, man. She said we stopped when she heard the commotion and went running over to help.”
“Has she spoken about it since?”
“Look, man, I don’t know what this is about, but I’m not getting involved.”
Lucca steps forward, gripping him around the throat and slamming Will against the wall. “You are already involved. Can you, for certain, say she had nothing to do with the fire?”
Will’s eyes begin to bulge as he shakes his head. “N-no. Like I told you, man, I was out of it.”
Lucca lets him go, and Will gasps for breath. “Don’t speak of this to Danielle. You know what happens to people who snitch.”
Will nods, reaching for the wall for balance as he makes his escape.
I step in when he leaves. “Why was Danielle here?” I bite out.
Both spin around to face me, grimacing when they see my thunderous expression. “Ivy,” Lucca murmurs.
“Nope. Don’t try to be cute. Why was that slut here?”
“Kaiden wanted her here,” Ethan admits, not bothered by how much his words hurt me.
Okay, now I’m feeling stabby.
“Why would he want her here?” I ask.
“It’s not what you think,” Lucca adds.
“What do I think?”
“That our brother is giving someone else what should be your orgasms,” Lucca answers, grinning.
“Where is he?” I ask dryly, giving him a dirty look.
“It’s really not what you think. He’s doing it to keep her close. He wants answers, and the only way for us to get them is to make her believe she’s gotten away with it. She might be a bitch, but she’s a cunning snake and knows how to work those around her. Kaiden knows that and wants to use it to our advantage.”
I relax somewhat, not feeling as stabby anymore. “Where is he?”
“I think he went upstairs to get something out of Dad’s office. I’m not sure.”
“Where’s that?” I ask Ethan.
“Up the stairs, down the hall, take the first left and it’s the first door on the right.”
I nod, leaving them to do whatever it is they’re planning on doing next and rush up the stairs. I get a quick glance of Grant talking to Danielle and her friends, and my stomach rolls.
Moving quickly, I head to where Ethan directed me, pushing the door open. Kaiden is nowhere in sight, but a picture on the desk captures my attention, and I move over to get a closer look.
It’s a picture of Nina—Kaiden’s mum—cradling Kaiden in her arms as she lies in a hospital bed, Royce stood stiffly next to her.
He’s not really spoken much about his mum, and I’ve never seen her, not until now. She’s beautiful, radiant as she smiles down at the new-born baby bundled in her arms. She has the same features as Kaiden, including stunning green eyes that just seem to pop out.
My attention focusses on Royce, seeing the same blank, soulless expression he constantly wears. It seems there was never a time he was happy, not even for the new arrival of a baby.
I sigh, feeling sad for the boys. Their mum looks so happy in the picture, so full of life, with the potential of a bright future. What did my mum do that took that away from her? What broke this woman to the point she took pills to forget, to forget she had children?
I place the picture back down on the desk. I’m about to step back to go and find Kaiden when the date on a piece of paper snags my attention.
The thin, scruffy scrawl can only be a man’s penmanship. I lift it up, collapsing in the chair when I read it.
Howards block, flat 2b
Our flat.
Why does he have our address?
And why does it have the date Mum died on it?
I look back down at the other papers, seeing a picture of my mum collecting drugs from one of our local dealers.
There’s nothing else on the desk. I pull out the first drawer, finding nothing but pens and stationery. I open the next drawer, finding pretty much the same thing but with other bits of junk.
The last drawer is locked, and I look around the room for something to open it with. Not seeing anything, I open the second drawer, pulling out the pocketknife and screwdriver I saw. Once I have the knife through the thin gap, I push the screwdriver in and twist the handle until the lock pops.
I pull out stacks of papers and set them down on the desk, flicking through them as quickly as possible. All of it has to do with a business or bank statements. A large sum of money has been taken out of one account, and I glance at the name of the account, confused when I read ‘Randal Ryan’. But it’s the date the large sum of money was transferred into another account that draws my attention. It’s the day my mum died.
This isn’t a coincidence.
My heart begins to race as I continue to flick through the last few pages, seeing nothing that can explain why he has all this stuff. A sick feeling swarms in the pit of my stomach.
I look back down at the drawer, finding it empty. I drop the papers back inside, but as I shut the drawer, something doesn’t sit right, so I pull it back open.
The drawer should be deeper.
I lift the papers back out and grab the knife once again, digging into the edge of the drawer’s base. My heart races when the thin, wooden panel lifts, revealing a hidden compartment. Inside is an old cassette player, a flip phone with buttons, a disc, and a couple of photos.
My stomach roils at the sight of my mum, around fifteen, naked and passed out on a bed. Her surroundings show she’s in someone’s home, but not Nova’s. For one, it has a photo on the bedside table of an Asian family.
I’m going to be sick.
The pieces keep pulling together when I turn on the mobile phone, looking at the last messages sent.
SENT: Message me when you find a local dealer who will present her with the deal.
UNKOWN: What if she doesn’t take them? I can get this done quicker, just say the word.
SENT: NO! It will be too suspicious. Just make sure they take the drugs.
UNKNOWN: I’ve told you, I don’t think the girl does them.
SENT: It’s okay. Once the mum is gone, she’ll be alone. I’ll make sure she never comes back. Make sure you get the tape before she gets home.
UNKNOWN: Done. Mother dead.
I gag at the photo of my mum’s dead body lying in a pool of her own vomit, tears spilling down my cheeks.
He had her killed.
SENT: Good. The rest of the money has been transferred.
Why did he do this?
I look down at the next message, recognising the number as my mum’s.
CARA: You got my letter? I want twenty thousand by the end of the week or I’ll make copies of the tape and send them to the police, press, and to anyone who will listen. I will ruin you like you ruined me. And I made copies, so don’t think I won’t.
I grab the bin from the side of the desk before emptying my stomach into it. I wipe my mouth, my chest heaving as the twenty second voice clip plays on the phone. It’s a little hard to hear, but there’s no mistaking the sound of a young girl begging someone to stop.
The diary.
It was true.
Every word was true.
Rising from the chair, I grab all the evidence before rushing out of there. My vision blurs as I try to make it down the stairs without falling.
“Ivy?” I hear Grant call when the cool air hits my face.
I don’t stop, ignoring him and running home. I run upstairs, hitting my room and slamming the door shut behind me. I run over to my bed, throwing it all down in front of me. I grab the cassette player, unravelling the headphones.
I rewind the tape and take a deep breath before pressing play. I need to know. I need to hear it to believe it.
A sob wrenches from my throat when I hear my mum crying out, begging whoever to stop. I turn it off, reaching for my laptop and inserting the disc into the disc reader.
Wrong Crowd (Kingsley Academy Book 1) Page 23